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With Rs 50 crore suit, Navjot Singh
makes a point
WSN Network
 CHANDIGARH: For
a dozen years, enough in which the face of India has changed beyond
recognition, a young man languished in jail because the Indian
nation state turns deaf to the cries of those it traps while it
wears blinkards of hatred, a failed justice dispensing system and an
anti-minority agenda. Stuck behind bars, Navjot Singh, branded a
co-conspirator in the assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant
Singh, could clearly see that the face of the Indian nation state
has not changed at all. It retains all its warts and they are
growing more grotesque.
Now that he has
finally been honourably acquitted last year, Navjot -- who was 26
when the blast near the Punjab Civil Secretariat on
August 31, 1995
blew up Beant -- wants to send a message to this nation state.
He has sought
damages for all the harassment and torture he underwent all these
years. The court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM), J S
Bhinder, has admitted Navjot’s petition claiming a compensation of
Rs 50 crore from the Union of India, the Chandigarh Administration,
the Delhi Administration and two senior Central Bureau of
Investigation officials.
He has claimed
Rs 10 crore as damages for “monetary loss by way of losing salary,
promotions” and “an unsettled life, missing out on marriage,
procreation and business.” Also, he claimed Rs 50 lakh as litigation
expenses and Rs 39.5 crore for the loss of reputation, mental and
physical torture and detention for 12 years.
The petition
stated that during the period of his police remand, Superintendent
of Police R S Dhankar, SCR-111, CBI (HQ), New Delhi, and S N Saxena,
SP, Special Crime Branch, CBI, Mumbai, tortured Navjot and put him
under pressure to become a prosecution witness in the case. It
further states that CBI officials entered into a criminal conspiracy
with the Delhi Police to falsely implicate Navjot in another
criminal case. The case was finally dismissed on January 14 this
year.
The petition
states: “The mental agony and torture suffered by the plaintiff
during the police remand and thereafter by remaining confined to
jail premises for about 12 years was horrible and inhumane. The
trial was also conducted on the jail premises, which proved to be
torturous. He also suffered in terms of reputation on account of
being falsely implicated. He had to bear the stigma of being a
murderer when he was not even remotely concerned with the case.”
Navjot’s father
Tarlok Singh led an unrelenting struggle to get his son released and
now stands shoulder-to-shoulder with him in this battle.
Singh said: “I
have constantly tried to keep Navjot’s morale high. As I always knew
that he was innocent, I never had a doubt that he would be
acquitted. Although it took him several months to come to terms with
reality, Navjot has now reconciled to the past. I just want a normal
life, away from any controversy, for my son now.”
Tarlok Singh is
a retired gazetted bank officer and his mother is working as a
government school teacher. Navjot has a degree in MA (English) from
the
Panjab
University and was employed in Ranbaxy Laboratories in November
1995, when he was arrested.
August 21 has
been fixed as the next date of hearing for the plea.
23
July, 2008
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